Season 3: Episode 9 Rewrite, Now With Common Sense!
by mjnousak
Summary: So I had an issue with the most recent episode, so I rewrote it. Ruby does the smart thing, ruining Cinder's plan in the process.


"Fine, if you're not going to tell me." Ruby tensed up, knowing what she'd have to do.

"Fighters are you ready?" Oobleck's voice could be heard coming from the arena. Mercury grinned, there was no way Ruby was getting past him. But, Ruby was gone in a blur of rose petals, heading out the door behind her, back the way she came. Mercury blinked for moment.

"...Dammit!" He grabbed his scroll quickly dialing Emerald.

* * *

"What do you want? The match just started." Emerald growled into her phone quietly. Pyrrha and Penny had just squared up,and she was trying to concentrate and decide what illusion to use.

"You have to get out of there!" Mercury shouted, swearing as he ran the opposite direction, knowing he couldn't catch Ruby when she was using her semblance like that.

"What? Why?! Cinder needs us to-"

"Ruby saw me! She's headed in your direction now! YOU! HAVE! TO! GET! OUT!"

"What?! Why didn't you stall her?" Emerald stood up, taking up a brisk walking pace to the nearest exit.

"Her semblance makes her too fast to catch! Just go!"

"I am!" Emerald got around a corner as she heard Oobleck start to break his fast paced, blow by blow commentary.

"What's this? Is that Ruby Rose at the edge of the battlefield?" Oobleck was quite confused why one of his pupils was interrupting the match. Ruby had taken to running around the edge of the forcefield, her ethereal rose petals that few off of her cloak drawing the eyes of the crowd and announcers.

"Yes, it appears she's trying to get the combatants' attention." Port retorted stating the blindingly obvious as Ruby banged her fists on the energy shield as she ran,panting hard and looking slightly out of breath.

"Ruby?" Penny squinted at her only friend's figure, her mechanical eyes reading that Ruby seemed flustered, her face a bit red and her breathing ragged. She'd clearly done something to nearly exhaust herself to get there, not to mention using her semblance like that. Ruby wouldn't interrupt a fight for nothing. Penny retracted her swords, having them return into her 'backpack'. "May I call a temporary truce?" She asked Pyrrha politely, who was also looking at Ruby.

"Yes...let's." Pyrrha nodded, sliding her shield onto her back and sheathing her sword. Ruby rarely looked like this, and she wouldn't have interrupted a fight without a good reason. The fact Pyrrha had just been clued into the truth of the Seasonal Maidens, what had just happened to Yang, and the fact that Ruby seemed to be the one in the middle of a lot of disasters lately, this was ringing all sorts of alarms in her head. She wasn't sure what was going on, but the tournament was low on her priorities at this point.

"Both competitors have exited the arena and are rushing to Miss Rose. Someone shut down the shield for the internal barrier." Port ordered, "What is going on here?!" He asked irritably, giving Oobleck an confused look recieving an equally confused look from his co-host and fellow teacher.

* * *

"Ruby! What's wrong?" Penny asked, quickly rushing over to her friend.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked with an equally concerned tone.

After a few deep breaths, Ruby looked at Penny, biting her lip for a moment before glancing at Pyrrha. It was all or nothing now. She didn't know what Mercury and his team were planning, but they knew about Penny's true nature and Pyrrha's Semblance

"Penny, they know about your..." She put her hands palms face up, squeezing them a few times in a rigid manner before continuing. "and Pyrrha, they know about your semblance." Penny gasped and Pyrrha raising her eyebrows. "You can't fight, They're up to something...I don't know what, but I think they're planning on doing something like what they did to Yang."

"I think we should postpone the fight." Penny said, firmly pulling Ruby into much more gentle hug than before. She'd been told hugs would calm people who were stressed, and she very much wanted to calm down Ruby.

* * *

"What do you mean we have to stop the operation?" Cinder asked coldly over the phone. Without the cries of rage and shock from the crowd, the Grimm wouldn't be riled up enough to make their attack effective. Without the exposure of P.E.N.N.Y. as robot and another "savage" attack by a Beacon student her speech would have significantly less impact on what should have been an already shocked and horrified crowd.

"The cloaked kid saw me and got away, by the time I could tell Emerald, she was already in the arena and making the fight stop." Mercury quickly explained, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Did you at least get away?" Cinder asked irritably. If nobody but Ruby saw them, and Mercury was able to be sent back to Haven quickly, they had plausible deniability.

"Yes, nobody saw us leave."

"Good, go to one of the drop off points with the White Fang, we'll discuss further this back at the base." Cinder hung up, texting Adam [ _Plans are delayed, pickup Mercury and Emerald, then head back to base._ ] She stared off into the distance, looking towards the stadium. Team RWBY was proving to be quite problematic to her agenda. She'd have to find a way to take away any influence that they had if she wanted to proceed.

~~RWBY~~

I had an issue with the most recent episode, so I rewrote it.

Ruby just bolting back the way she came right away will force Mercury to call Emerald and tell her to get out. The cameras would spot her and throw off their story. Mercury can't catch Ruby because of her semblance, and it'd take her mere seconds to get back the way she came. So Emerald has to leave because Ruby will be nagging her the whole match, or draw everyone's attention to her, forcing her to do nothing lest she be filmed and questioned if she makes up a convincing excuse for why she's still there.

Penny and Pyrrha would stop fighting when Oobleck and Port comment on Ruby running around the arena, both of them knowing the blur of rose petals would be Ruby. And Oobleck and Port commenting on it would also provide a distraction. Penny would be willing to stop because it's _Ruby_ , and Pyrrha isn't exactly in the right mood to fight, so this excuse would probably be welcomed.

Without another "savage" attack from a Beacon student, and exposing Penny as a robot, Cinder's speech will fall much flatter. Without the crowd getting riled up, the Grimm won't come. Putting another screeching halt to her plans because of Team RWBY's antics.

To address the reviews more publicly (I did reply to them in private messages as well). as they bring up some fair points that should be addressed

TheThunderbirdRising said "Have you seen what happens when people run on the field during actual sports? The match would be stopped, Ruby would be dragged off, and then the match would continue"

Ruby wants the match to stop, and she's faster than the guards, so they can't catch her.

The audience is irrelevant here, Ruby just needs to convince Pyrrha and Penny. both of whom trust her, and would listen to her.

Baconpwn has turned off private messages, so I'll reply here.: The Grimm were dicking around in Mt. Glenn en masse until that happened, so no, they weren't marching towards Vale. As I said in the fic, Ruby goes around the forcefield, she's not getting inside it. If a Nevermore can sit on it and peck at it without the barrier breaking, there ain't no way Ruby's getting through it.

And, in reply to Roronoa Zoro Ultimate Badass (though we have had a much more extensive conversation in PM's).

"even if Ruby would of gotten out the way she came faster, she wouldn't of been able to inform anyone of Mercury and Emerald"

As above she only needs to convince Pyrrha and Penny.

For those saying Ruby can't spam/ her semblance in rapid succession. That hasn't been shown in series, and Weiss and Blake can use theirs in rapid succession, there's no reason to assume Ruby can't. She uses it twice in a row in Season 2 "A Minor Hiccup" First to grab Penny after running on a wall, then to rebound off a wall and fly down the alleyway. Albeit she does faint for a moment, but this is likely due to the extra effort it would take to move Penny, who is much heavier than Ruby. It would just make her tired, as I had it do in the fic.

Ruby's path back (sans the fight with Mercury would) have been a 180 turn, run through the door (it opens outwards, so all she needs to do is push it and she's out) and she'd have a straight shot at the arena. All she has to do is run around and use her semblance to get their attention. That's, at best, 20 second of actions and she's got everyone's attention. The fight lasted a few minutes. Mercury could react to her charging at him, but he couldn't make up the gap if she just turned and bolted. And Merc CAN'T go outside to chase her because him being in public ruins Cinder's story.


End file.
